Over 40 and want more juice and joy in your life? OBGYN and hormone expert Anna Cabeca—The Girlfriend Doctor—gives us the scoop on reclaiming our health, vitality, and sexual fire during menopause and beyond.  

Anna’s struggle with infertility, and early-onset menopause, at 39, prompted a global pilgrimage to study alternative healing practices. Combining Western and Eastern medicine optimized her hormones and she conceived naturally at 41. The experience fueled her mission to help other women take control of their bodies.  

Anna’s approach is holistic and human—a far cry from the typical “pop a pill or slap on a patch and hope for the best.” It’s about building a vibrant life from the inside out, with nutrition, movement, connection, community, pleasure, and purpose. And, hormone therapy is the icing on the cake!  

We go over all the critical things every woman needs to know. How to harness the power of the hormone hierarchy, which adaptogens and supplements actually reduce symptoms, and the importance of gut health, alkalinity, and detox. Anna also spills the secret to getting rid of belly fat, and why bioidentical hormones are the way to go.  

The two biggest secrets? Oxytocin… queen of all hormones, and getting serious about your sexual health. Anna lays out the science behind how love, connection, and intimacy are the keys to hormone balance and longevity. We celebrate self-pleasuring, and the best way to alleviate pain during intercourse and eradicate urinary infections and incontinence.  

This is a must-listen if you want to age like a goddess and suck the marrow out of life.  

TESS’S TAKEAWAYS: 

• Fixing your hormones takes more than hormones. Nutrition and lifestyle are foundational.  
• Bioidentical hormones are superior to synthetic products on offer.  
• Reversing early menopause is possible with strategic nutrition and lifestyle changes.  
• Cortisol (stress hormone) is the enemy of health and happiness. Regulating it is essential.  
• Microdose oxytocin daily by cultivating pleasure and joy to change your physiology.  
• Sexual health is critical. Our health span should equal our lifespan and our sex span.  
• There’s no age limit on sexual pleasure. Cultivate the sex life you want.  
• Self-pleasure is a powerful form of self-care that boosts longevity.  

ABOUT DR. ANNA 

Anna Cabeca, DO, OBGYN, FACOG is the author of The Hormone Fix, Keto-Green 16, and MenuPause.  

Multi board certified, Dr. Anna is a fellow of gynecology and obstetrics, integrative medicine, and anti-aging and regenerative medicine. She also holds certifications in functional medicine, sexual health, and bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.  

Anna lectures frequently demystifying the complexities of women’s health. A cornerstone of her work is helping women manage stress and cortisol, and leverage oxytocin—the “love hormone” to restore connection, desire, libido, joy, vitality, and sexual pleasure.  

Through her practice and research, she developed a line of natural products, including Julva® vulva cream and MightyMaca® Plus, that help women thrive through menopause.    

Known as “The Girlfriend Doctor,” Ann is blunt and speaks from the heart, using sassy humor to make health and science relatable and fun.  

She lives in Dallas with her daughters, and their extended family of horses and dogs. 

CONNECT WITH DR. ANNA 

Website: https://drannacabeca.com?_ef_transaction_id=&oid=1&affid=5508080 

Breeze Through Menopause: https://drannacabeca.com/pages/breeze-live?oid=10&affid=5508080 

Books: https://drannacabeca.com/collections/books?uid=181&oid=1&affid=5508080 

Julva: https://drannacabeca.com/pages/offers-julva-trial?uid=42&oid=1&affid=5508080 

Mighty Maca Capsules: https://drannacabeca.com/products/mighty-maca-menopause-capsules?uid=9&oid=1&affid=5508080 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrAnnaCabeca 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegirlfrienddoctor 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drannacabeca/ 

MEET TESS MASTERS:   

Tess Masters is an actor, presenter, health coach, cook, and author of The Blender Girl, The Blender Girl Smoothies, and The Perfect Blend, published by Penguin Random House. She is also the creator of the Skinny60® health programs.       

Health tips and recipes by Tess have been featured in the LA Times, Washington Post, InStyle, Prevention, Shape, Glamour, Real Simple, Yoga Journal, Yahoo Health, Hallmark Channel, The Today Show, and many others.    

Tess’s magnetic personality, infectious enthusiasm, and down-to-earth approach have made her a go-to personality for people of all dietary stripes who share her conviction that healthy living can be easy and fun. Get delicious recipes at TheBlenderGirl.com.    

CONNECT WITH TESS:  

Website:  https://tessmasters.com/     

Podcast:  https://ithastobeme.com/      

Health Programs: https://www.skinny60.com/  

Delicious Recipes: https://www.theblendergirl.com/  

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/theblendergirl/     

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/theblendergirl/     

YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/user/theblendergirl    

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/tessmasters/ 

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Oh, Anna, I am so excited to get into women's health with you. And I want to start with your personal story of going into menopause early, because this is personal for you your work.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: It is very personal and and thank you for having me, Tess, and I love to, you know, to help other women go through the journey they didn't have to deal with the messes that I dealt

with. Yeah, we've had some great conversations over the years,

Dr. Anna Cabeca: absolutely, absolutely, and part of my personal story is post traumatically, having experiencing infertility at age 39 going through several rounds of fertility therapies and the highest doses of injectable medications and not having any ovarian response, and then being

diagnosed with early menopause at 39 years old, and that led me on a healing journey around the world. Actually did come to Australia, and it spent a couple months there, and then I went to Ubud in Bali, just so many amazing serendipitously, meeting amazing healers, but as a result of that journey and digging into

Eastern and traditional medicines, combining it with my medical knowledge, and really, I say the grace of God restore like reverse, the early menopause diagnosis, and then naturally, I conceived a child I was told I would never be able to have when I was 41 years 41 years old. And so that really

like through that experience and really changed the way I looked at health and healing and my job as a physician and inspired me to like, you know, takes more than hormones to fix our hormones the body is so powerful we can be healthier tomorrow than we are today. And so I'm now 59 years old. Turned 59 last

month, and I am just like, I feel like I'm healthier than I was in my 30s.

I feel that way too. It is so extraordinary when you're able to take charge of your health like this. So I want to talk about this. It takes more than your hormones to fix your hormones, because what you teach is so holistic and so wonderful. But before we talk about that, I want to go back to

what you were saying about this infertility in your 30s and reversing your early menopause diagnosis, because somebody listening might be going, what? Oh, come on. You know, that's snake oil, but it is possible. So what did

Dr. Anna Cabeca: you do? Well, you know, for me, it was the adaptogen so that I ended up incorporating into my mighty maca formula. Maca when I went to Peru in 2006 and they said, if you're infertile, drink maca. If you're tired, drink maca, and then they would elbow my husband at the time and say, it's the

Peruvian Viagra, like, okay, let's have some maca.

But doesn't know what Maca is like us. Let's talk about this amazing route.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: Yeah, so Maca is indigenous to Peru, and it grows at a high altitude, like 11,000 feet, 9000 feet and above in the Andes in Peru. And it's a root that has specific proteins. They're called maca Enes, and they're very specific to Peruvian maca, Chinese maca, is not the same. And it also is

rich in arginine, which increases nitric oxide formation, which is how, which increases blood flow, and that's how Viagra works. I was like, Huh? There may be some science to this, right, you know, and so, and it's adaptogenic. It's adrenal adaptogens, probably also a genetic adaptogen. So

whether you're an overdrive or underdrive, so whether you're wired or tired, it really comes in and helps support your body, natural hormonal production and detoxification, and it's been shown to improve sexual you know, all aspects of sexual function decrease. Hot flashes. Be protective, breast

protective. Be anti inflammatory. It has so many good aspects to it that I was, I was, you know, really committed to taking it, but like you I mean, if it doesn't taste good, I'm not gonna do it.

Is assertive, you know, she's a bully, and you can put a little bit in, and it dramatically changes the flavor profile of smoothies and shakes, and that's typically how, you know, we put it in bliss balls and all kinds of other things. But it can really take over. So that is something that was a bit

of a triumph for you, is making it taste good,

Dr. Anna Cabeca: yeah, and adding other antioxidants and good extracts, fruit extracts, and like mangosteen and pomegranate and acerola cherry and, yeah, different blends of greens and detoxifiers and all those things to like, I might make this powerful because I don't want to take a handful of

pills. But if I can take this as a shot or put it in my smoothies, perfect.

You have it in capsules too now,

Dr. Anna Cabeca: and I do. I have it in capsules without steam. Yeah, yeah. So it's, it's yeah, really, really handy,

yeah. And that is not the only thing that you did, because we don't want to be telling the story that, oh, I just took a supplement and my menopause woes were over, right? That was one of the many things that you did. So let's talk about your your keto fix, and some of the, you know, the

oxytocin and all these other things that you recognize were part of the magic puzzle,

Dr. Anna Cabeca: yeah, well, and additionally, right? So it's, it's definitely working with nutrition, and I say medicinal foods or medicinal menus. And for me, that incorporates the Keto green, what I call keto green aspect. And this means low carbohydrate, but healthy carbs, like our our complex carbs from

like cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli sprouts and beet greens and Macas in the cruciferous family, as a matter of fact. So these help with estrogen detoxification. That's powerful. So these medicinal foods, I start to incorporate more of these, and to get my you

know, and to really drive insulin down, to decrease insulin resistant because that will interfere with pregnancy and fertility and ovarian it increases ovarian aging. So we don't want that. So intermittent fasting became key. And high quality protein and healthy fats or hormones are made from fat,

are made from cholesterol. So this concept of a healthy, keto, green nutrition plan with intermittent fasting was part of was was part of this puzzle, these pieces to the puzzle that I found, and of course, like the most important thing is when I think of, like our hormones, I think of this hormonal

hierarchy, and created this hormonal hierarchy where oxytocin is our Queen Mother of hormones, right? It is our queen mother. It is, you know, the hormone of love connection. It is scientifically been shown to be anti inflammatory, to be regenerative, repair muscles to support the immune system, to

support brain health. And we think of the characteristics of oxytocin, we think, I think of the Blue Zones. I think of what were the character, what are the characteristics in the blue zones that contribute to their longevity. And it's community. It's healthy relationships, long lasting marriages. It's, it's,

you know, having good faith based practice, whatever it may be, like a spiritual practice or faith based or meditative practice. It's getting out in nature, doing things you enjoy doing with people, you enjoy doing them with all of that increases oxytocin. I think that's the secret sauce, to be

honest,

how you teach about oxytocin, because we're just not talking about it enough. So thank you for the work that you're doing with that. So can we just get into the weeds a little bit so, so dear listener, you understand exactly what oxytocin is, so you talked about it being the love

connection hormone. Can we talk about how we where oxytocin plays a role in our life, like in childbirth, orgasm, things like that. Can you just talk us through that? And then the relationship with insulin and how they work in consult with each other or with cortisol, yeah, sorry, cortisol and

oxytocin, pardon me. And then I want to talk about the blood sugar piece with the insulin, and how it all comes together.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: Yeah, yeah. So and it like this. Hormonal hierarchy is so key, because we get everything works together, but with oxytocin. As an obstetrician, I learned about oxytocin. I injected oxytocin in my patients during labor, Pitocin. If you ever received Pitocin during labor, that's

oxytocin that helps stimulate contractions. When we breastfeed, we increase oxytocin, and that helps, again, this bonding. I think about how nature made us to imprint. I think, you know, I've had children now, so I think about this a lot, but not only as an obstetrician, but the incredible

effect of these hormones when, you know, when we're in, we stimulate oxytocin, we It stimulates contractions and we go through labor. It's a natural analgesic and amnestic. So in other words, it makes you forget the pain that you actually experience. So otherwise, we'd only have ever one child. It's

so true, but oxytocin is part of that. And then you get this child, and you're like, oh my god, I never knew love. Felt like I could feel this kind of love, but that's bonding that helps you protect and nurture and care for this child, as well as every time you nurse or breastfeed, that oxytocin

secreted, and that's further imprinting. And we know oxytocin early in life. You know from touching you. Mean, cuddling, nursing a child is associated with less addictive behavior, better social adaptation, relationship skills decreased, you know, autoimmune disease and I mean, that's powerful. That's

powerful. We're designed that way, and oxytocin is produced. There was a study Paul Zach did. Dr Paul Zach, PhD, did, looking at oxytocin, and he studied different situations and checked to see what increased oxytocin the most. So he went to this wedding, and he checks an entire bridal party, and the person

with the highest oxytocin was, I don't think it should surprise anyone, but was the bride? The highest oxytocin was the bride. But guess who had the second highest oxytocin?

Oh, I don't know.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: The mother of the bride. Probably was gonna say that, and then I second guessed myself, was not the groom. It was not it was the mother of the bride. And I think that is so cool. And I think of the traditional societies. I really studied world medicine and societies and what helps us,

you know, survive wars and conflicts and trauma and grief and and child loss and all those things when we think of these traditional societies and the wedding, like the wedding of like an Indian or Arab family, there's like hundreds of people at this wedding. Like 500 600 people. Your whole community's

there. Everyone's involved, everyone's dancing, there's music. Both increase oxytocin, good community. So you're like building, you're creating this bath in oxytocin to further foster bonding, and I think that has to play a role in longevity of relationships. Yeah.

Oh, I love that term oxytocin bath. So how can we bathe ourselves in oxytocin throughout the day?

Dr. Anna Cabeca: Yeah, and this is where I like to say we need to micro dose oxytocin throughout the day. I love that. And the beautiful thing is, like the best pharmacy in the world is our own body. We make this oxytocin, and we make it not just in our uterus and our womb. The way we produce oxytocin is

certainly, we have glands that produce oxytocin, predominantly in the pituitary, but the heart has both oxytocin receptors and produces oxytocin. So hence this love, this powerful, energetic force within us, this you know, it produces oxytocin and also has receptors for oxytocin. And so in, you know, in my trauma,

and you hear the word heartache, I mean I had felt that heartache, that heartbreak, that complete constrictor of my heart. And I think it's that effect of loss of oxytocin or that profound love and a high cortisol antagonistic effect on our oxytocin receptors. But the heart really does like it hurt,

it hurt and so and other places, like with vaginal distension, so with intercourse, with childbirth, that increases oxytocin, stomach distension. So having a full moon, I'm happy and well fed that full stomach. Having a full stomach increases oxytocin. Oh yes, it does. Yes, it does. And so that's why, like

that fasting, or that intermittent fasting and not snacking, is really important. So you can really feel that, that happy fullness, you know, Matt, happy shift versus, if we're eating like regularly all day, I think that allowing that constrictor contraction and then that expansion like that

increases oxytocin. Definitely happier, definitely happier. And then, of course, positive touch and thoughts, spiritual practice, prayer, gratitude, walking, you know, doing things you love, gardening, enjoying nature, singing, dancing, music, all of those things increase oxytocin throughout our body. We

have receptors throughout our body and touch receptors physically on our body. With that stimulation, positive touch increases oxytocin, including a head wrap. Oh, my God, I love going to my hairdresser and getting a head wrap.

So do I a head massage? I could have one of those all day, every day. So hugging, having sex, you know, how do we stroke ourselves, if we live alone, for example, and you are aiding your getting these oxytocin hits, micro dosing throughout the day.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: Well, definitely too. The research shows that having a pet increases oxytocin. So playfulness of a pet, I don't know how much. With cats, I'm not a cat person, but with dogs, definitely. Definitely the research is there with dogs, and they greet you very happily, but

being able to even stroke, you know, like an animal, like a cat or dog and horses looking eye eye to eye with another living being, whatever that living being is, that is a way to increase oxytocin, but even like positive touch, you know, in the shower with yourself. You know, self pleasuring a huge way to

increase oxygen. No partner, no problem. Yeah, and and again, doing activities and meditation, we talked about sound baths and how that can mean, you know, sound baths can feel physiologically levitating, and it can increase oxytocin. So those are that part of that stimulation of our innate

sensation systems increase oxytocin without shopping.

That definitely shopping, watching Dancing,

Dr. Anna Cabeca: absolutely I was like, sometimes I prescribe for my patients, watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

I watch shits Creek if I want to get a hit of oxytocin throughout the day, I'm jumping on my rebounder watching shits Creek because I'm jumping myself and I laughing my head off. It's amazing.

So we want to talk about cortisol, because we don't talk about these control hormones, enough and this relationship between cortisol and oxytocin. So when our sex hormones, these predictive hormones, decline as we age, our cortisol levels rise. So can you talk us through that and why

it's so important to be monitoring and recognizing when we're experiencing elevated stress?

Dr. Anna Cabeca: Yeah, absolutely. And I want to put this in context, because when they think of our hormone hierarchy and all our hormones, like melatonin, even vitamin D as a really misnamed, it's more of a pro hormone, estrogen, DHEA, I mean, even progesterone and pregnenolone. I like to give

the example of like a university setting. All the students of the University are like these hormones. They each have their own roles, passions, purposes, talents, gifting, direction, etc. But the regulatory hormones that control in a way lead to to control them, to modulate them, are like the professors at the

university, and this is cortisol, insulin and adrenaline. So if you've ever had a professor come in or a teacher come in, hungover, high, whatever, and they're like, turn the lights out, play a movie. There's chaos in the classroom, right? Versus a really good professor that's instructing

you're inspired, right? That's different. We want to keep these hormones in optimum function, and as our reproductive hormones decline, insulin and cortisol increase. And these are catabolic hormones. They break us down. They work against our physiology. And what I found through my own trauma and PTSD

and I had to go to the research because I was feeling disconnected. I was feeling the, you know, the I say, the physiology of divorce. I knew I had loved my husband, but I no longer felt love for him. I loved my work, but I was burnt out, and I dreaded going in. And that's that physiology when

cortisol is winning. Because when cortisol goes up, oxytocin gets suppressed, because, again, you're in high stress, no time to love on your enemy, right? They don't coexist at those high levels together. So you're in this high stress survival state. And so cortisol goes up, oxytocin goes down. And contrary

oxytocin, when you increase oxytocin, cortisol goes down. There's the fluctuations throughout the day of of cortisol, but when you're in chronic everyday stress for a long time, or post traumatic stress, the Para ventricular nucleus area of the brain says, okay, cortisol, you're frying me

out. I'm going to suppress you because you're like catabolism. I'm breaking down muscle, breaking down bone, very acidic, and so it says, Okay, we got to suppress you, and you come into this dangerous but oxytocin stays suppressed. So this physiology, and this is very well described in PTSD, everyday

trauma, post pandemic stress, what this feels like is that isolation. Your world's getting smaller. You're withdrawing from the world. More you don't feel pleasure. You have anhedonia, lack of feelings of pleasure. You're less connected. You burnt out. As I say, it's the physiology of depression,

Physiology of divorce, and it's physiologic. I want to give the example of a patient like once I learned this, I started implementing, okay? What did I need to do to increase oxytocin in my own life? How can I help my patients? And I had a male patient come in to see me. I always give guys credit, because

if they come to see a gynecologist, you know, they got to have a good sense of self, right?

Absolutely. How many men come to see

Dr. Anna Cabeca: you period? Usually the wife send me, but this guy, because he had trauma and he'd heard my story, yeah, he came in to see me, and he goes, and he was in his mid 30s, and he'd been in a train accident, and since that train accident, everything in his life was like, he recovered

physically. But he said, you know, like, I I know I love my wife, I love my kids, but I am so detached from them. I'm so disconnected. I'm so detached. I feel like, you know, I you know, like, I don't feel love for them, like, intellectually I know, like I I did love them, but I don't feel it anymore. And

you know, I hate my work. I've lost my friends. I'm really struggling. And so we looked at his, you know, traumatic experience, the trauma of the train accident, but also how that affected a traumatic brain injury, and how that could have impacted him too. So addressing these areas, I really talked to

him about oxy I did my oxytocin quiz and and and, you know, coached him on increasing oxytocin and, and I also prescribed him at that point oxytocin for a short time, over three, three to six months, to kind of get him out of this. Like to get him feeling again and try to do these things. But

he totally turned his life around, like reconnected with his I was playing with his daughter, reconnected with his wife. Was happy and joyful again. Was like purposeful. His passions were back. And if we understand that physiology, like we say, physiology affects behavior, behavior can also

affect physiology. So if we know that making that, if you don't feel like about making that effort to go out and play, go to the playground, get on the swing with your daughter. I mean, you know, do these activities, things that you enjoy, incorporate that into your life. Laughter. What funny movies can

you watch? What can you do together that makes you laugh? And do, you know, put yourself in that space. Plus, I will say a spiritual practice is key too. Then you're producing more of that oxytocin again, and you will defeat cortisol. I also make people check their urine pH, and when he checked his his

urine pH was very acidic, so it should be greater than seven ideally when we wake up and when we go to bed. But his was really acidic. So just by monitoring his Ph, he could see where his nutrition, his lifestyle, his oxytocin increasing behaviors could come. Could improve his urine PA, you improve that

alkalinity because oxytocin is alkalinizing. Cortisol is acidifying. So there's a way you know to measure and then you improve your guy, you know, you improve your physiology and that that just shifts everything.

And you know, we don't again talk about this enough that stress manifests as inappropriate and in excessive inflammation in the body, like you were talking about that acid creates inflammation, and inflammation is the root of all disease, which progresses to chronic disease. And that's just

the formula. That's the rub of life, right? But it is. It's just so important to talk about this. We were talking about Bali before we hit record, about how you're going there. And I remember, I went to this laughing workshop, and we all just stood there and started to laugh, and we were in a circle,

and everybody just was laughing for an hour. I literally felt like I had taken the greatest drug on planet Earth, just from laughing and hearing other people laugh like when James Lipton asked, you know, in inside the actor studio, what's the greatest sound? And someone says, The Sound of people

laughing. I so relate to that. And so I love what you're saying about cultivating a mindful practice of putting yourself in a sense of play, in a in a state where you are enjoying yourself and you are in community with others, and it is a mindful practice that we need to actually, actively and

consciously seek out those opportunities and put ourselves in that space.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: I want to emphasize that, especially listeners that think that, okay, well, you know. And I want to just be honest and say the you know that put PTSD, put me into a state of depression and suicidal ideation and complete disconnect and burnout. And this they are, you know, definitely

the nutrition, the Keto, green, all that was important, but the oxytocin, increasing practices focusing on gratitude, on positivity, reframing how I thought and saw myself in the world. That was like pulling myself up by my bootstraps, you know, into another vibration, another energetic vibration. And

I think that was that is so key so that micro, you know, throughout the day, we can do that, and we find sometimes we have to make up the. Things that, because when you're in that dark for me, certainly, and I know with many of my patients that are in this state of dark depression, it can feel like,

oh, there's nothing I like about myself or nothing I like in the world. And you're in that really, that suppress that physiologic state, and it's dangerous, but you can say there's always something like, I'm breathing, I have a strong body, I have good legs, I can walk. I have a bed, you know, a

pillow on my bed that I can sleep on. There's a blue skies today. And you just start, like, finding these things that you will overlook because you're in this dark place. And you just start finding these things and gradually, gradually, I promise you, it brings you out of the for me, I like to say the pits

of hell definitely brought me out of the pits of hell.

It can feel very, very dark. So is that where you start with your patients and your community? Because listener, you may be feeling in that place and going well, that's all fine to say, gratitude, gratitude, but I feel in such a pit that I don't even know how to take the first step.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: Yeah, I and it is, it is this whole piece together. But I will tell you, like in my book, at the hormone fix, there's a daily activity log, and this is something I give my patients. I give my my members in magic menopause and breeze program. I give them this checklist, this questionnaire,

this daily, I say daily activity log to go through on a daily basis to focus on these positivity factors. So it's, like, it's in my book, and it, you know, I start with, what are you grateful for? And, like, that's a key part, like, what are you grateful for? And I want you to document it every day.

And then what's your cheer word? I have clients choose a cheer word, because, you know, I got a great absorber observer of people. I love to watch people. I like to look at their expressions. And this is something I've learned in that healing journey, because we were on this flight to Australia, and

I, yeah, it was great. We were on this

long flight, so you got a lot of time to think it's

Dr. Anna Cabeca: a long flight. And I have, like, my I had two kids with me and my husband, and actually he wasn't, like I thought, he didn't have a seat on the flight, so turned out he ended up in first class. Didn't tell us halfway through the plane ride. But anyway, so it's me and the girls. I don't know

where it's my you know, where my husband is, like, he his seat got taken or whatever. And I'm on this flight now from LA to Australia, and this guy's like, oh, again, I was struggling with the kids. And I'm like, I'm sorry. He's like, Oh, no worries. And, you know, no worries, let me help you. And he

was like, this Australian, it was very happy. He had lovely smile lines and laugh lines. And I was like, Ah, how interesting. Because, like in his language, we say hello. In America, you guys say, you know, like, no worries, or what do you what do you say when you say hello, good day, good day. And that brings a

smile to your face. So you have already built into your language this positivity and so, like, you want laugh lines and smile lines. So I

know and women are trying to get rid of them. Ah, they're trying to erase them. I just don't understand that. I like to have a map of where I've been.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: I definitely, I definitely am with you, and I want them to be smile lines and laugh lines? Yeah, I get it. If they're frown lines, get rid of them. But if they're laugh lines and smile lines, I'm all for it. And so the second thing is the cheer word. Like, what word that you say, it brings a smile to

your face, but also ends with a smile, right? So, like, is it my granddaughter and Alisa, you know? Like it leaves you with a smile. And the word smile the good day, no worries. You know these, like, find a word you know that leaves a smile, makes you smile and and use it throughout the day. Put it you

know, and really start shifting your physiology. We know, like, you know, 20 years ago, we may have said, this is soft science. This is not this is well founded research that shifts our neurotransmitters, our physiology and our energetic potential. So cheer work so, and then you know, who did you

connect with, and what's your oxytocin activity? So on my checklist for clients, I think it's so important that we do that so that we're focusing on the positive instead of the negative all the time. And so like, if we can shift our physiology with that, that's important. And I had a patient

recently, and she was in. A she's 37 she had three kids at home, and she was very anxious. Had brain fog. She'd always have her mom on the phone when we talk, so she her mom could take notes. And she was having, you know, weight gain issues and and I and I asked her, I said, you know, I'd been working with her

for a couple months before I asked her this question, so I learned to ask it a learned to ask it a lot earlier. But I said, What are you doing for fun? What do you do for play? What brings you joy? And she goes, or what have you done that you really love doing? And she said, I love dancing. I love

dancing to music. And I used to dance as a girl, and I loved it. And I said, Well, do you think you could do that again? She goes, actually, there's a place not far from where I dropped my kids off to school that I maybe, I'll, I'll check into and so when I saw her back like, I think it was two or three months

later. First of all, she didn't put her mom on the phone. She goes, I am feeling so much better. I mean, we've done her hormones, her labs, or new vitamins, all that stuff. Nothing was moving the needle. She goes, I feel so much better. I'm at peace with myself. I'm so much more organized and happy.

So what are you doing? I'm taking dance lessons two to three times.

Oh yes, dancing makes me so happy. And I do a static dance. I go to five rhythms once a week. It's a non negotiable part of my self care, and it just shifts your state.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: You gotta do that

incredibly powerful and, oh, I can so relate to what you're saying. And what I love so much about your work is this holistic approach that, yes, you're working with hormone replacement, you're also talking about diet and oxytocin and love practices and intimacy and all

these things. And it's about finding and putting these pieces of the puzzle together. I want to ask you about cortisol and this relationship with belly fat and weight gain that you teach so beautifully in your community about this relationship with cortisol and the ability to manage your weight when you're

going through perimenopause and

Dr. Anna Cabeca: menopause. Yeah, so everything we can do to increase oxytocin and reset our circadian rhythm is going to help us manage cortisol. So we think about this too, and when we have, when we are pushing that cortisol pedal, that cortisol increases glucose in your body, which then include

increases insulin, which will drive glucose to increase fat. And we really see it in the waistline. So we say the we see waste gain in this perimenopause menopausal period, because of this imbalance in cortisol and increase in insulin driving that fat into, you know, increase in fat and and that's critical to

understand. So we're looking at, I look at them together, and like, let's create insulin sensitivity. Let's manage cortisol. And when you do, you actually do see that, you know, hourglass figure come back and think that's really important. And also because with the gut, with as our hormones are

shifting in the gut, we have a shift in our gut microbiome. So we really have to put more effort into keeping our gut healthy. So with the foods we're eating, with the nutrients that we're putting in our body, the probiotics, if needed, and fermented foods, and prebiotics and post biotics, we talk about

all these things because we have such a in America anyway, like a very corrupted diet. So you really have to put effort into having these healthy practices rebuilt, to rebuild our gut, and that also helps with estrogen metabolism and detoxification. So we know these things, so they kind of work in hand in hand,

but when that cortisol is going up, we see that increasing glucose, you become more insulin resistant and you store more fat. So the key concepts of of alkalinizing, intermittent fasting, low carbohydrate eating, like medicinal foods and herbs and spices, they were, you know, like whoever thought about

digging up garlic, right? It has medicinal properties.

I could put, I sometimes I put garlic in a smoothie, just FYI, not a whole garlic clove. But, well, if I'm doing a gazpatro style smoothie, yes, but oh gosh. I mean some, I can eat a clove of garlic like a tablet. It's so fabulous.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: Maybe I'm gonna go cook some right now. Just the

bomb diggity, and it just makes everything taste amazing, too. But yeah, look

this, this, this

insulin resistance and and our focus on blood sugar. That's why I went earlier when we were talking, I just went, Oh, this relationship between oxytocin and insulin. It was really cortisol, but I just had insulin on the brain because I just was reminding myself. To ask you about this blood sugar

piece, because it is. It's such an important indicator of health at any age, but for women over 40 and perimenopause and menopause, regulating our blood sugar is just paramount. And so many women get diagnosed with pre diabetes over 40, so talk us through, why this blood sugar, cortisol, oxytocin, this kind of

relationship. And for those of you that are listening and not watching on YouTube, Anna's been holding up this this hierarchy chart. So you may want to go back and take a look at it. Anna, do you mind holding it up again if you want to go over to YouTube and actually watch it. It's a really, really just quick

overview of the hormone hierarchy, which I love so much. So why do we need to be paying attention to our blood sugar?

Dr. Anna Cabeca: It is so critically important. And you know, I'm like OB GYN by training. I triple boarded in integrative medicine and regenerative medicine. Regenerative Medicine, but my original training is all in OB GYN. So my first experience with glucose management was in

gestational diabetes and blood sugar management in pregnancy. Why does pregnancy become a state of increasing of like, risk for diabetes? What is happening in pregnancy? It's not that we're eating more, that much more, but what's really going on. And so that combination of hormones and

becoming insulin resistant and the physiology of pregnancy was really always fascinated me. And so in working is and then in midlife, what's happening as we're becoming as I myself, you know, experience what my patients came in, experience like they come in say, Dr Anna, I've gained 510, 20 pounds

without doing anything different. And as a young, you know, Doctor, I was like, sure you're not doing anything. I didn't say that to him, of course, but sure you're not doing anything different. You know. I'll check your thyroid. I'll check these things, but, you know, but surely there's

something you're doing different. You wouldn't just gain weight. And then I was 48 and had already lost 80 pounds, you know, I'd been well over. Lost those 80 pounds, kept them off for several years, and then I started gaining weight, literally without doing anything different. In this time frame,

47 to 48 gained 20 pounds without doing anything different. And for anyone who's lost a significant amount of weight and starts gaining, you don't like I was I going to be 300 pounds before this stop? Like, what is happening here? And that's when I realized, you know, that importance, we're

losing our anabolic hormones, or bone building, muscle building hormones, and were becoming more insulin resistant. Plus I was in really high stress. I still had that PTSD, so that cortisol increasing glucose. And this is really, I think this is where everyone needs to be their own Nancy Drew their own detective.

I love those books. Oh, my God. I love red. Everyone, at least couldn't get my daughters to read them very much I would read to them, but yeah, until they're on their own. Yeah. But so good, so good, right? So good. Those little hints and clues Nancy Drew made me a better doctor. I love it. So with waiting and

really trying to figure out wearing continuous glucose monitor really helped me understand several things. First of all, like I've been doing Keter green and, you know, was trying to understand what was going on, checking urine pH. And I would be in ketosis and have an alkaline urine pH when I get

up, and then have my black cup of coffee and be acidic. Well, that made sense, because caffeine, coffee is a very acidic and if I'm doing that on an empty stomach, that made sense, but I would be bumped out of ketosis. I'm like, Wait, this is zero calories. This is my double espresso. I mean, there

is zero calories in this and acidic orgy. It's an acidic orgy, and that it that caffeine increases cortisol, and so was bumping up my blood sugar, and so like, that's destructive. And then another time, I'm Do you know, I go in, I lecture to a group, an audience of several 100 people, and I go in fasting

because my brain's clearer, but I was wearing my continuous glucose monitor during this time, and afterwards, I look at my monitor, and my blood sugar had gone up to one from like low 80s to 150 fasted because I was so stressed and nervous, so that and so when your glucose goes up, your insulin is going to go

up. So when cortisol goes up, it drove up my that stress, because I was fasted, drove up my glucose, drove up my cortisol drove up my glucose. Then, of course, the insulin, and then it came down, but it stayed up for 30. Minutes, 30 minutes at 150 and I was like, wow, that was insane, but that helped me, help

my patients, that helped me adjust things so that you can be physiologic and physiologically more balanced and and add in those extra alkalinizers at going to really support my body during those high stress times, and you're bringing up

in a really important point, that we think that blood sugar is all about the food that we eat, and there are so many factors that affect our blood sugar that have nothing to do with food stress being a really big one. And you know, really, the message of this whole conversation is all

roads lead back to the gut and oxytocin. And so I want to ask you about sex, because talk about sex because you are the girlfriend doctor and so many women struggle with intimacy and connection and feeling disconnected and pain during intercourse, and you are helping so many women with this. So

listener, you may be experiencing this where you don't want to have sex. You've got low libido. It really, really hurts. You're thinking, Am I ever going to enjoy sex again?

Oh, Dr, Anna, to the rescue.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: I'm here for you. I'm not afraid to talk about it. And I would say I'm the sexual health expert, not the relationship or technique expert. Let me just put in a disclaimer. But I mean, it's so important, because our health span should equal our lifespan, but it should also equal our sex

span. I mean, sexual health is about a lot more than sex. When I looked at this intimacy drive desire, you know, divorce rate, gray divorces, what's going on there, and, and, and this disconnect in relationships, the sexless marriage, what's happening and what ages that affects and, and I really looked

at this and said, Okay, when it comes to intimacy and desire, what, what is really interfering with that? If we can narrow it down simplistically, what are the key three things that interfere with that? And so I came up with the three Ds. Can you guess what they are? Oh, just tell me, Dick is not one of

them that does not affect that is not one, but it comes to three issues, issues of desire, disconnect and discomfort, these three things. So what are the things that can affect our desire? It can be many things, right? Relationship, stress, medications, pandemic stress. I mean, it can be a lot of things

that affect desire and the disconnect. We talk about oxytocin, cortisol, connection, disconnection, so that's a key piece, and that affects our relationships. And the third being discomfort. And as we age and we have or, you know, even postpartum, if we've had episiotomies or repairs or

tears, it can be very painful for a long time, like opposite OB, GYN, but I also had really big baby and tore in a very bad way. Didn't have sex for a year after that, and so but when we age, we have dryness, a change in the decrease in the elasticity. If we're not addressing it, we'll have a

decrease in the elasticity pain with intercourse, a loss of pleasure and orgasm and that discomfort, if it hurts, every time you do something, why would you do it? Why would you do it? You wouldn't your partner, please. Your partner to power through, and then it builds resentment, well, and there's

mirror neurons, right? If it hurts, I'm powering through. Those mirror neurons to your partner are like, wait, you know, she's not having pleasure. There's a disconnect. There's mirror neurons here that are happening and what he like. I teach this in my secrets and science of sexual desire

masterclass. But the key secret, like, the number one turn on for a guy is her turn on his partner's turn on. Yeah. So your joy, your pleasure, your happiness. Sex is for you, not for him. If you're having sex, it's for you. It is all about you. Like tap into your pleasure. That is the like that

is the best turn on for you and your partner. But that that's a key piece of it. And so addressing genital urinary syndrome of menopause. I call it that GSM. Now I think it's getting such terrible terminology that we use for women. I mean, like a woman over 35 when I was 41 and had a

child, my diagnosis was elderly, multigravida. I mean, like, it's just her geriatric pregnancy, you have these terrible terminology drugs

that have been created by men, typically, totally,

Dr. Anna Cabeca: totally, I would call it something else, like, you know, robin's eggs, or, I don't

know, geriatric pregnancy. I mean, you're technically in a geriatric pregnancy.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: Totally, after age 35 you're, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and, and so, like, you know, like, this is, it's such an important association to make. So we wouldn't look at this, these changes. And I always look at, you know, the, what are our pleasure zones? Are clitoris to anus? I mean, tremendous amount

of nerve endings in the clitoris, over 8000 more than our fingertip, right? So we've got these incredible nerve endings that clitoris is specifically designed for pleasure. God gave it to us for pleasure. We are designed that way for pleasure. Anatomically, that is our pleasure. It does

not, you know, it does not have an age limit on that pleasure zone. And so keeping it healthy is part of our, you know, I mean, that's like, part of our right to keep it healthy. And the vulva, the anal tissue, again, nerve endings around the anus, very sensitive, can be an erogenous zone for many. And

then the the vaginal opening itself, the vulva vestibule, I mean, that can atrophy, shrink and and we lose that elasticity within the vagina, the rogation, the natural folds. And so you we, I have found we have to add hormones back to that area, or pro hormones, and that's one of the reasons I created my

product, jova.

Yeah, about jewel. I mean, happy vulva, happy life,

Dr. Anna Cabeca: right? Absolutely, yes. Oh

my gosh. More and more women are recognizing the importance of vaginal estrogen.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: Yes, and I think this is the important piece. Vaginal estrogen is good, but for me, like vaginal DHEA is even better, but also because we're focusing on the vagina. Now, great, but what about the poor clitoris who's like focusing on that like, so we've got to add back hormones. I

created jova with plant Alpine rose plant stem cells and DHEA for that, and emollients to drive the ingredients deep into the tissue for that. Rejuvenating, you know, age reversing, youth, youthful, you really help with blood flow, help with nourishment of that of those tissues, these vital,

this, I say, most prime real estate of our body, right? So even it's important, and it goes beyond like talk about sex and sexual health, but the issues that create debilitation are those vaginal infections, the odor, the urinary infections, urinary tract asymptomatic. Urinary tract infections and

incontinence issues lead to that midnight walk to their that 2am walk to the bathroom, and loss of balance and fall as we get older, leading to a broken hip. So, like, I was saying, Okay, what's the best things I can do to prevent my kids putting me in a nursing home when I'm older? Like, okay,

pay attention to my clitoris.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: That's right, the urethra, clitoris, vagina. Like, forget that. We keep that area healthy, because I don't want to deal with, you know, getting put in a nursing home, and the straw that breaks a caregiver's back is incontinence. Think about that. And vaginal estrogen doesn't

significantly help with incontinence, but DHEA and testosterone both do. Bulbar and vaginally applied, it makes a huge difference. Look, I

have put so many women in our skinny 60 community onto jewelba, because it's such a huge percentage of people when we send out our questionnaire at the beginning of our program, and a lot of it's about nutrition for our dietitians, but so many women, when we ask about what are some of the

obstacles to you feeling like you're in great health. It's I am not. I'm not having sex because it's pain during intercourse. I don't I feel disconnected. I'm not. I'm not experiencing intimacy and joy and all the things we've been talking about. And so I send them on over to you, over to Dr

Anna, and this product is literally life changing. I use it every day. I know you use it every day. So let's dive in a little bit more about how we apply it and why it's so great, and why you feel the difference when you don't use it.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: Yeah, yeah. Definitely, because we want to restore the anatomy. I know many people are listening, not watching. But have my handy pelvis here, and the like external vulvar anatomy, you know, again, the clitoris perfectly designed with good blood flow and nerve endings

over 8000 we know, and the entire vulvar tissue is very vascular. It's thin, it's mucosal, and so it can so applying it, clitoris to anus like you, you know, for some people that I just say, massage it in, just like you massage any cream in, anywhere or whatever, but the skin care for your

pelvic area is critical to optimal health. So clitoris to anus, massage it in. If you're adverse to that at this time, we'll get you over it, I promise. But you could put it. On toilet paper and wipe with it. For some of my clients that have elderly, elderly parents that they're caring for, they'll

do that. They'll make sure that they can wipe with it. But to put it on daily, because that's just gonna regenerate. You can put it on the vaginal orifice. You can use it during before or before or during sex. It's perfectly safe for a male partner where estrogen you want to avoid immediate contact of

estrogen with your male partner, unless he needs some estrogen, give him some but

I love that you're drawing the distinction between vaginal estrogen and vaginal DHEA. It's I just think this product is so extraordinary, and so you do, you do? You put it on in the evening. You put it on. That's when you put it on. I do in the morning. You put it on in the morning.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: I do for me, I do it in the morning as part of my morning routine. And it's, that's just part of my routine. But I tell clients like, are you an early bird or a night owl? Which? What are you more strict on with your routine? If you're both great, but like, choose, you know, either morning or

evening. It's fine at either time.

I like to be super clean down there, and then I can get in there with my finger and go clitoris, vagina to anus, like you said, and it's this little ritual. It's wonderful. And you know, it is so important to talk about sex and to get comfortable with talking about our bodies, and you're so

comfortable and put people at ease and give a safe space to be able to do that. So thank you, because it this is such an important part of it that we want to be enjoying sex as older women, your sex life is not over. You know, in your 20s and 30s, in fact, gosh, my friends in their 50s, 60s and 70s say

that their sex lives are better now than they were in these right? I know, Hello, yeah, yes, yeah. It's, it's, it's a beautiful, beautiful thing, and that

Dr. Anna Cabeca: increases oxytocin, that keeps that intimacy and connection, and that is longevity, yeah, yeah, and we

don't we. Most people are embarrassed to talk about masturbation. So I loved how you said that earlier, when we were talking about oxytocin bars and getting these oxytocin micro doses throughout the day, that masturbation is a beautiful thing if you have a partner or if you don't have a

Dr. Anna Cabeca: partner, right? I like to use the word self pleasuring. Okay, let's use self pleasuring, because I look at the origins of the word master patient, and so it is self pleasure. I love that, yeah, self pleasuring, right? Because that's what I'm doing. I am self pleasuring. And that is

important, right? That is important. It's like the caressing, taking care of your body. You know we were take care of our faces, we take care of our teeth. And, you know, the vaginal vulvar health is as important as our oral health and that sexual peace, that being able to express yourself, what

you like, feel empowered. And I think that's what I honestly menopause, you know, gives us that freedom and that lack of tolerance, like I want. I'm speaking my truth, and you know, this is the time to speak my truth, and what am I feeling? How does this feel? What do I like? And start expressing that

in and outside the bedroom like, you know, really start Express like I always tell clients that are uncomfortable. Just start like, if you have a partner or not, but what do you like doing? How does it make you feel what you know like, even if you're washing dishes? What is it? What are you feeling? What can you

bring pleasure into that experience? Can you be very present with that experience? Can you make it a meditation? And how can I lie it thinking

about self pleasure is a meditation, because if you don't understand your own body and what you like and you have a relationship with your own pleasure, how can you communicate and share your pleasure with another in intimate connection? So Kerry koligie, who I was interviewing

on the podcast, talked about how she realized through somatic practices and tantric practices that her pleasure was her own. It pleasure wasn't something that somebody else gave to her, and that's a really important shift in thinking for us, because we think of sex as, oh, you know, a man's gonna give it

to me, or a woman's gonna give it to me, or whatever our sexual preferences are, but what you're saying is so on point, and it really deeply resonates with me that we really do need to be cultivating this practice of self pleasure like we're brushing our teeth.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: I like how you said self pleasure as a meditation that feels good. Good.

That feels good, man, that feels yummy. Yeah, that just feels really delicious. Oh, gosh, I gave something to you.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: Oh, I love that,

because you've given me so many great tips and and and sayings and oh gosh, you've just got so many

things that have just helped So myself and so many people in our community, I want to ask you about hormones. So we've been talking about a lot of this lifestyle stuff, but you are an OB GYN, you know? And you do, you know, you do work with hormones. So for a listener, dear listener,

somebody who is afraid to even think about hormone replacement because of that ridiculous study that, thank God, has been debunked. Now, what would you say about seeking out, you know, a really get great OB, GYN, who's trained in menopause like you, that actually understands, because the OB GYN that

delivered our babies may not be the OB GYN that's appropriate for us in our 40s, 50s and 60s,

Dr. Anna Cabeca: right? Or maybe a naturopath or a functional medicine provider. I mean, they really, I always tell clients, is that, first of all, you know, there's no age limit on feeling your best. We've got to do it takes more than hormones to fix your hormones. So do these lifestyle factors? The keto

green method for me, you know, following Tess, getting plans and programs. I mean, that's so foundational, that is key. And now, when it comes to hormone, this is the icing on the cake, and that we can use it for longevity. And I always like to, you know, I'm, I'm on the you know, I want to optimize, but I

want, like, I'm going to use low levels of hormones, especially after menopause and but optimize it and really work with all these other aspects. I want our adrenals to function. I want to keep our ovaries functioning as long as possible. I want to keep our thyroid functioning healthfully as long as possible,

our heart, all of our brain. I mean, all of these things is so critically important now, when it comes to hormones, I always tell clients, like, would there be an age limit? Like, if, if you're a certain age, you know, do they ever say, oh, we need to stop your thyroid hormone, or at a certain age, we need to stop

your insulin, I mean, these other bioidentical hormones. Why are we saying at a certain age we have to stop

this because we're specifically conditioned that it's

Dr. Anna Cabeca: not science. It is not science. It is not based in science. And if we look at the synthetic medications, like if I use bioidentical post menopause, I like transdermal, not oral estrogen, we can do oral progesterone, that's fine, bioidentical and not the synthetic. So it really is like

this massaging. And I tell clients, I can, first, you want to optimize health and do this in a healthy way, because how our hormones detox are key. But secondly, like, call a compounding pharmacy. You guys have compounding pharmacies in Australia, right? Yes. Call a compounding pharmacy and say,

who's doing hormones really well, not too much, not too little. Who's doing hormones really well? Like, who? When your patients come in, they've they look good, they feel good, they're getting, like, who's doing hormones really well? And for women, specifically, and your age, and be very specific,

versus men. And you know, are pumping pellets into someone you know, you want to do it in a restorative and supportive way. So who's doing it? Wow. And compounding pharmacists will know, and they'll give you names, yeah.

And I love the way that you think about hormone replacement as a supplement, not the one fix. And your book, the hormone fix, is about this holistic, this holistic view of and optimizing, rather than balancing, this term of optimizing your hormone function.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: Oh, gosh, I could talk to you and it's, it's those foundations, right? It's good night's sleep. It's detoxifying, supporting liver, kidney, bowel function, having those daily bowel movements, clean air, clean water, good community, good relationships, positivity, all those things

like that comes into really important comes into play. It was

really interesting. What you were saying before about how you had that patient come in and she was taking hormones and doing some of these other things, and it wasn't moving the needle until you talked about the oxytocin piece and putting some of these lifestyle practices into play.

And then everything shifted for her. Everything, yeah, and gosh. I mean, can we it's so

Dr. Anna Cabeca: important, because you have hormone clinics, you know, on corners now, and they're not even seeing a patient, and they're like, Okay, we'll just, you know, send you these hormones for me. I can't practice that way. No, that's why I want everyone to be educated to understand the

fundamentals. 99% is our nutrition. Lifestyle, it really is, and that 1% that can be the icing, you know, the icing on the cake, but that is, I mean, it's really and I think more and more as I tap into what I love doing, and getting out in nature, and being with my animals, being with spending

time with my daughters, you know, and doing things, playing pickleball. I mean, doing things I love doing.

I knew you're a pickleball player.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: Used to be a very I used to have a tennis court. Yes, gone,

well there. I mean the studies about racket sports and how it really helps with brain health, the hand eye coordination and longevity. It's so powerful. So if you're not playing a racket sport, get to it. I mean, it's to it. We're tennis people. I mean, we are just hardcore tennis people.

It's so amazing. But Pickleball is really gaining Semen straiter, which is amazing. But, yeah, pickleball, my goodness, that man that created it for his kids. I mean, who knew that story? Isn't it brilliant? It's so incredible. I just want to ask you, though, just to pick up on what you were saying about

why you prefer bioidentical hormones as opposed to synthetic hormones. I know some listeners are going to write in, and I won't have followed up with that with you, so I just want to make sure we cover it.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: Yeah, I want to give you the research on that, because, you know, this is the area I train physicians and hormones and longevity management. But what do we know? We know from the studies, from the Hearst trial to the Women's Health Initiative study and the follow up studies, that oral

progestins have a negative cardiovascular profile and also associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, and it gets small, but increased so, but oral micronized progesterone, or bioidentical progesterone does not so why would we choose a more inferior now? Sometimes, like, there's

reasons that they're, you know, we need to use a synthetic for one reason or not, but I haven't written a prescription for in synthetic hormone in 20 years now, and so we're able to able to get good results. And then oral estrogens, the the study with Women's Health Initiative, they use Premarin. Now, even

with this oral estrogen, it did not increase the risk of breast cancer. So like that, fear was unfounded. It was the progestin, the Provera, which is a toxic progestin, that increased the risk and and had negative cardiovascular profile. The oral estrogen did increase drop strokes. So we think, Okay,

well, then why would I use oral estrogen in a post menopausal woman or someone at risk? We can use transdermal the patches. We can use vaginal we can use compounded creams. There's gels and sprays that are bioidentical that have bioidentical estradiol in it. So there are ways that we can, we can use bioidentical

estrogens transdermally, and we know that has a safe cardiovascular profile. And Dr Forney, I followed his work from 2005 through 2010 and in In he published, and in the middle in 2008 he published a study looking at 88,000 women who were on different forms of progest, progestins and progesterone. And

he found that in this 88,000 woman study published in 2008 so a long time now y'all, they looked at Oral micronized progesterone did not increase the risk of breast cancer, but the progestins did with the pregnant and nor pregnant derivative. So like a pregnant derivative would be Provera, a

nor pregnant derivative would be nor a thin drone. So the pregnants were the worst, with a three to four times increased risk. And the nor pregnant derivatives like norethindra had a, you know, two to three times increased risk or so, but oral micronized progesterone had a zero increased risk. And so we

look at these things and say, Okay, well, when we do it safely. As provider, and I work with clients with breast cancer, with all kinds, like people that no one wants to touch you like I want to work with clients to empower their health, to create bodies inhospitable to cancer, that are thriving and

energetically positive and and just loving life. And so the you know, I think that there's so much misinformation the literature, progesterone and progestins were used interchangeably. They're different molecules completely. And when I look at the mother hormones I use, I'm holding up

my balance cream because I put pregnant alone and progesterone in it, because they are both mother hormones, and I put some tripeptide for anti aging, reducing age spots and wrinkles and stuff. Because if you're gonna put a cream on right, Tess, you want it to like,

yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: Well, you I know myself, then I will use it, right? I will use it. So look, we

often discount transderm. Application, yeah, so incredibly powerful. And you know,

Dr. Anna Cabeca: if you have a healthy gut, right? Oh, God,

we're so on the same wavelength here. I was absolutely going to bring this up. The healthy gut piece is so key to all of this, healthy gut, healthy life, health. You know, you know, if your guts in trouble, your health's in trouble. We know this, and this detoxification piece that you

were talking about earlier, that we think it's all about more estrogen. More estrogen, more more more and more is just more, and it can irritate, disrupt and overwhelm the body. So I just want to reiterate with you again about how important this detoxification piece is with estrogen and progesterone and

these sex hormones. Oh, it's

Dr. Anna Cabeca: critical. It's critical because it's like, you won't just keep putting oil in your engine without ever changing the filter. Never do that when I just thinking about that, because my car has the oil light on, like, I just want put oil in. I'm like, you can't do without changing the filter.

Okay, so, and it's the same truth, the truth is with us too, like, so you have to detox the liver is so powerful, and now, like, there's an epidemic of fatty liver, even in kids, support the liver. And you, you know you have to support the gut microbiome, like it's been destroyed from antibiotics and

pesticides and herbicides and different things. So we really have to work on on this, you know, really organic nature of organic bodies that are also energy bodies, and the energetic nature of our energy bodies. And that piece like, you know, I think all of this makes a difference. Joe Dispenza did a

study looking at the gut microbiome and in a week of core, a week of the his course is usually a week long, and they do meditations every day for seven days. They did a pre and post test and found an improvement in all, all of the participants in their gut microbiome. Now they're all

eating at the same, you know, hotel or close by, or wherever they're at, you know, but there was an improvement in the gut microbiome. I don't necessarily think people eat healthier when they eat out. I think they less healthy potentially, when they eat out. So to have those results showing through that

week of meditation, positivity, oxytocin, increasing practice of meditation, good community. You know, you're doing something good. You're in these healing circles and all that good stuff that that affect your microbiome that quickly. I think that's really powerful information. We can shift it between not just

what we eat, but all the other things that we talk about and love doing. Yeah.

I mean, gosh, I'm just gonna do the big celebration of oxytocin.

I love, I love how everyone on your team now has the oxytocin signature in their email. It's just all about oxytocin. And so thank you

for for shining a light on that and really putting it in the spotlight where it belongs, because it's just so it's so beautiful.

Dr. Anna Cabeca: Well, it's, it's the most important. And I'll add one more thing on the gut discussion. But I found out early in my practice that, like, for some women, like they I'm using creams, but they're not getting, you know, they're not getting the benefit. Or I'm using a topical patch or a gel,

or whatever it is, and you know they weren't getting the better. They go higher and higher doses. I'm like, what's going on? And then when I learned about the gut, I'm like, Oh, they're bloating, they're constipated, their guts unhealthy. And like, if your if your guts unhealthy, your skin's not a good

transmitter. So we'll bypass to the vagina temporarily while we are, you know, our other ways, until we get that gut healthy. But if your guts not healthy, you're not healthy, right? You won't absorb the hormones as well.

That is the thing, isn't it? That whole thing, if you are what you eat, it's technically not accurate. You're literally what you digest and absorb. And if your gut is not in place, you know, not in balance, we can't absorb things. And we want to be, you know, absorbing things through the

skin effectively. Oh yeah, look. I mean gut health, gut health, gut health. That is the center of everything that we do, and I know it's very central to everything you do as well. It's just thank I'm so grateful that more and more people are realizing the importance of the gut microbiome. Oh, Anna, I wish

I was coming to Bali with you.

Just hug it out and have like this oxytocin celebration, right? I mean, I just

love Ubud so much. So I always close every episode with the same question, which is, for someone who has a dream in their heart and doesn't feel like they have what it takes to make it happen, what would you say?

Dr. Anna Cabeca: Right? I think the most important thing is I would touch base with that and say, Where am I limiting myself? I would think of that. And I think to NASA, they say, you know, the sky is not the limit, because we've proven that. Right? I've. Into space. So the sky is not the limit, and I

would play with if I didn't have these limitations, if I didn't have to think of how it would happen, what would I create in my life without the how and like dare to dream. I just say dare to dream. So important.

Thank you. I feel like a plant has been watered. Yeah.